A Prayer of Faith

Pam Hansen takes her readers on a very difficult and intimate journey, though her misery, her frustration, and her inspiring triumph. Her story begins with the despair of losing a baby, and it continues on through the heartrending trials that follow that first major blow. She describes the pain that she felt, but also the comfort she found in food. This false comfort led her down the path of weight gain and poor self-esteem. She writes:

“For many years, it had seemed that my body was not a true reflection of my spirit. It was almost as if my body was separate from the person I really was. I hated and blamed it for not dropping the weight I wanted to lose. I loathed looking at myself in the mirror. I was not making the connection that my body was just responding to my actons. For years, I felt as if my heart and mind worked together, but my body seemed to be working against everything I really wanted or knew to be true. The scriptural adage “…the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41) became very real to me. I wanted so badly to lose weight; I knew what I had to do to make it happen, However, for all those years I had regarded my body as my enemy.” pg 60.

As her view of her body, her self-worth, and the love of Heavenly Father changed she was able to make long-term life-style changes that allowed her to lose the weight she had gained, and fulfill a long-time dream of running in a marathon.

Through the central chapters of the book she describes in painful detail the daily misery she felt because of being obese. She explains the constant fears of being judged, her poor opinion of herself and her feelings of helplessness. These chapters are an eye-opening reminder to be sensitive to all of those around us, for while obese people wear their struggles where all can see, nearly everyone has a demon to struggle with. It is a poignant call to “Judge not that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1) Through these chapters she also describes the many things that helped her to change her life, the insights she gained, and the supportive friends who stuck with her.

Throughout the book, and especially in the last few chapters she describes the experience of competing in the marathon she had dreamed of running. The intense amount of work that went into training for it was richly rewarded by the joy she felt in making her dreams come true.

This book is really about dreams. It’s about letting go of the dreams that we have no control over, and trusting in God’s will for us. It’s about conquering the dreams or rather, the nightmares, that make us feel helpless and worthless. Lastly it’s about the work it takes, and the joy that we can feel when we finally live the dreams that are within our reach.

Running with Angels, by Pamela Hansen. Published by Deseret Book.

Cover image © Deseret Book. Used with permission.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 6:46 am and is filed under All Good Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.